A long time ago, I got a brand new Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas and I started playing Super Mario Bros. I had been playing games for years at that point, but they were always on older systems, ones that I got used or maybe long after launch, so even though everything was new to me it was old news for most of my friends. I started playing games back when they were dominated by books and everything was played on paper and in our imagination. Then I continued to play through the generations of Atari consoles, like the 2600 and 7800. As soon as I got my hands on that new Nintendo, all I wanted to do was play 24/7. While playing, there were so many times I ran out to tell my sister or my mom about my latest conquest (both of whom I am sure were on the edge of their seats awaiting my latest update). I just wanted someone to share my happiness.

Once I started playing new games for the first time all I wanted to do was show people, friends, and family alike all the cool things I was doing. I wanted someone to see how cool it was, the same way that I was seeing it. Things like reaching the top of the flagpole, or using the stairs trick with that turtle duck thing to get infinite lives. Alas, there was no means to do that, short of using the huge and very off limits family camcorder. In more recent times things like game play and how to’s have grown in popularity via sites like YouTube and the internet in general. Quite a few companies have been scrambling to make it easier for people to record game play for sharing. For the longest time Fraps was the go to program for game recording on PCs, but as great as Fraps is it is only usable on PC and even then users will need a fairly powerful PC to use it and run the game at max settings. Game capture and live streaming have become so popular that the newest consoles include those abilities with the console, and Nvidia has allowed for users of their newest, higher end cards to have a built in game capture. But what about everyone else?

The AverMedia EXTREMECAP U3 makes recording game play a breeze, and is useable for PC and consoles alike. The EXTREMECAP U3 by AVerMedia allows you to capture uncompressed full HD video via a USB 3.0 at a full 1080p and 60FPS. The EXTREMECAP U3 also allows for streaming video. The EXTREMECAP U3 measures 137.2 (w) x 84.8 (d) x 18.55 (h) mm it weighs 182 grams and comes with the micro USB 3.0 cord and the component video/stereo dongle cables. Set up is very easy and all the programs one needs are readily available on the AVerMedia website. It even comes replete with 3rd party plug-ins for Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, and Sony Vegas. The bundled software includes AVerMedia RECentral, and the USB 3.0 Diagnosis Tool. Other compliant software includes DirectShow compliant software: e.g., XSplit, OBS, AmaRecTV, Potplayer.